[Lone Dog]

I feel what you're saying 411.....

But it brings up yet another interesting point. Like you pointed out in your last post, grades normally do drop when someone is peldging. However, shouldn't the introduction on MIP have changed all of that? I mean, we call folks coming in now paper or skaters if they go through strict MIP and no underground process. Yet the "skaters" have GPA's that don't waiver, but the "real" bruhs/sorors GPA's have hit the basement. I can attest to this because my grades dropped so much that I had to leave line to keep my scholarship. And where I went to school wasn't, and ain't , cheap. And then I had to wait 5 years before I actually got to the opportunity to cross in a grad chapter, which was hard as hell, but it didn't cause my work performance to slip. Because these men were experienced and knew how to run a process. But it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that if a 3.8 student is all of a sudden getting a 2.6, then something is wrong.

If scholarship is what every org in the NPHC esteems, then why do we, as members, long for a process that will cause one's grades to drop?? That is a paradox in and of itself. So there are pros and cons to MIP and old school.

My suggestion is this: re-implement the pledge clubs. Make people stay in those clubs for a semester and PROVE their scholarship, community service, desire for brotherhood/sisterhood, etc. Get rid of the ridiculous errands and nightly sets. Make the pledge club do fund-raisers. Make them tutor students. Make them contribute time to charities. Make them meet with the bruhs/sorors on a regular, but not nightly, basis. Make them spend a WHOLE lot of time TOGETHER. I say allow them to do things such as dress alike, carry bricks....they can do all that ON THE WAY TO CLASS with their STUDYING DONE. Don';t get me wrong....they need to feel some heat...it's a motivator. But make the things these folks will do in the organization part of their process. So when they get in, they already knew how to set-up a fundraiser. They are already used to contributing to the frat's community service. They are used to fraternizing with the bruhs, though only to a VERY limited extent. So they are prepared if/when they get in.

Now that isn't the complete and total answer, and some folks may be doing some of that. But I think it should be part of the answer. Don't sacrifice one of the ideals in order to teach another. We should teach them, and allow them, to exercise each of the principles prior to their crossing. You don;t learn the ideals of the org after you cross. You learn them before hand, live them, and foster them in the process so that they are refined for service once you're in, if you are so fortunate enough to cross.

It is said that if you can do something for 21 days, then it becomes habit. Think of what 4 months will do.

ROOOOOOOOOO